Vivek Sharma, VP of Meta’s Horizon social VR platform, is leaving the company, According to reports Reuters. Meta spokesman Bryan Pope confirms Sharma’s departure edge And said Sharma was leaving to pursue an unrelated career opportunity.
Sharma’s departure comes at a somewhat awkward moment for Horizon. The Metaverse was a huge bet for Meta, with Horizon at one of its cores, but last week the whole effort turned into a meme.To help drive the launch of Horizon Worlds in France and Spain, CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a screenshot at Horizon that highlights his dead eye avatar, which almost immediately became a popular joke on the internet.A few days later, Zuckerberg shared concept art of a more detailed avatar, but damaged Already done. There is even a Snapchat filters mimic Zuckerberg’s meme-like look.
The meme moment and Sharma’s departure may just be vignettes in the company’s metaverse ambitions. Meta is rolling out new hardware, including a new VR headset that Zuckerberg said yesterday would launch in October. This week, the company launched a new Meta account that lets you use the Quest headset without logging into Facebook. But so far, the Metaverse has proven to be a costly venture. Last quarter, the company’s Reality Labs unit reported a loss of $2.8 billion.
Sharma’s team will now report to Vishal Shah, Meta’s VP of Metaverse, Pope said.
“We thank Vivek for his contributions to our marketing, gaming and virtual world teams over the past six years, and we wish him all the best,” Pope said in a statement. “Thanks to his leadership, the Horizon product group has built a strong team with a great vision, and this is just the beginning. Meta remains a source of great leaders and we are delighted to see Vivek in his Achievements in the next chapter.” Sharma did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
